'Rugby helped me heal after the pain of stillbirth'

A woman who had a stillborn baby says playing rugby saved her life.

Hayley Compton, 39, from Nottingham, who works for BBC Radio Nottingham, had Liliana in 2020.

She says people rarely felt they could ask about her.

She said: "People don't want to talk to you because they don't want to upset you or they don't want to feel awkward."

A friend recommended she join the rugby team Mellish Ladies, who play in the city.

"I would cry in the car all the way to [rugby] training and I'd arrive red-faced and puffy-eyed but no-one judged me," she said.

"I needed that break from the loss, from the aching."

Video journalists: Chris Waring and Natalie Jackson

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